Legendary pop singer Whitney Houston was found dead Saturday at a Beverly Hills, California, hotel, officials said. She was 48. The entertainer, whose incredible talent was discovered at an early age, was pronounced dead at 3:55 p.m. (6:55 p.m. ET) at the Beverly Hilton hotel despite resuscitation efforts, a police spokesman said. Beverly Hills Police Lt. Mark Rosen said there were "no obvious signs of criminal intent" and that the cause of her death is being investigated. Houston's bodyguard found her body, said Courtney Barnes, publicist for hip-hop artist Ray J, who was dating the pop diva. According to her official website, Houston sold ...
Yahoo Inc Chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors will step down as the struggling company ploughs ahead with an internal overhaul, including discussions on dealing with its stakes in China's Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan. The corporation - once a Web powerhouse but now agonizing over a range of options to revive flagging growth - on Tuesday said it appointed former Rovi Corp CEO and International Business Machines Corp veteran Alfred Amoroso and ex-eBay COO Maynard Webb as independent directors. Yahoo's board has come under fire from investors impatient with the company's persistent inability to effect a turnaround, and frustrated with the apparent indecisiveness of stakeholders over ...
Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has vowed to fight an "anti-business culture" in Britain, warning that a row overexecutive pay and bonuses threatens the country's fragile economic recovery. "Let me say something about the row over bonuses and pay," Osborne said in a speech to the Federation of Small Businesses. "Of course rewards for failure are unacceptable -- and those who believe in the free market are the first to say so. But a strong, free market economy must be built on rewards for success." The Labour Party has heaped pressure on the ruling coalition to curb excessive pay for top executives, using a House of Commons debate to demand the return ...
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said on Tuesday he is resolved to settle a longstanding territorial dispute with Russia at an annual rally calling for the return of all four Russian-held islands off Hokkaido in northern Japan, the Kyodo news agency reported. "We'll continue to make steady and determined efforts to move ahead with negotiations," Noda said, stressing the need to sign a peace treaty with Russia. The four islands - which Russia calls the Southern Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories - has been the subject of a territorial dispute between the two nations since the end of World War ...
Amanda Knox's Italian lawyer has filed an appeal of her slander conviction in Italy, a Knox family spokesman inSeattle said Monday. In October, an Italian appeals court overturned the young Seattle woman's murder conviction in the 2007 death of her British roommate in Perugia. But the same court upheld Knox's conviction for slander — for falsely accusing bar owner Diya "Patrick" Lumumba of involvement in the slaying. Lumumba was freed after two weeks in prison for lack of evidence. Knox later said she was "manipulated" during her lengthy police interrogation. An appeal of the slander conviction was filed Monday, Knox family spokesman Dave Marriott confirmed. He doesn't know when the Italian ...
The Dutch railway will remain 'vulnerable' during wintry weather but Dutch Rail (NS) and track operator ProRail did not help matters during the current cold snap by the late introduction of schedule adjustments to cope with the conditions, transport minister Melanie Schultz van Haegen told parliament in a briefing on Tuesday. The NS and ProRail assumed on Thursday of last week that there would be three to five centimetres of snow. When the forecast was increased on Friday morning to between 10 and 15 centimetres, it was too late to change the timetables automatically, Schultz van Haegen told parliament. Drivers and conductors ...
Greece can leave the eurozone without damaging monetary union, European digital affairs commissioner Neelie Kroes says in an interview with the Volkskrant on Tuesday. Kroes, a member of the Dutch ruling right-wing Liberal party VVD, is not a supporter of Greece exchanging the euro for the drachma, but says: 'It is absolutely not a case of man overboard if someone leaves the eurozone.' The commissioner is very critical of the new Greek government and says they are not fulfilling their promises. 'Too few spending cuts, too little restructuring,' she says. She says the Greeks should follow the example of Italy where the new ...
Mitt Romney hopes his presidential campaign hasn't ignored Rick Santorum's aggressive attacks for too long, as caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota on Tuesday could reshuffle the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Santorum largely bypassed Florida and Nevada to blanket the two caucus states with criticism of Romney and lay the groundwork among conservatives who have great sway in the process. RivalNewt Gingrich praised Santorum's strategy as shrewd even as he signaled he had no interest in exiting the four-way race, which also includes Ron Paul. "I think that Santorum's going to have a pretty good day," Gingrich told reporters on the eve of the caucuses. "He targeted differently than I ...
Glencore and Xstrata agreed an all-share merger worth $90 billion (56 billion pounds) on Tuesday in the industry's largest ever deal, creating a commodities powerhouse spanning mining, agriculture and trading. Glencore, the world's largest diversified commodities tradinghouse, will issue 2.8 new shares for each Xstrata share in a deal they said was a "merger of equals." The ratio is a 15.2 percent premium to Xstrata shareholders compared with its share price last Wednesday before word leaked out about the merger talks, a joint statement said. "A merger between Glencore and Xstrata offers a unique opportunity to create a new business model in our industry to respond to ...
US White House hopeful Mitt Romney aims for another big caucus win in Colorado on Tuesday, as his well-oiled campaign machine works to cement his position as the Republican front runner in the US presidential race. Polls suggest he should triumph easily in the western US state -- where he scored 60 percent in 2008 -- although there is a tighter race in Minnesota, where last-placed Rick Santorum is hoping to snatch a win. Romney's main rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, is battling to stay in the race after two heavy losses in a row to the former Massachusetts governor, who ...
Radical Islamists pose the biggest threat to Norway even though it was a right-wing extremist who carried out the twin attacks last July that killed 77 people, Norwegian intelligence service PST said on Tuesday. “The threat associated with these groups is worrying today,” PST chief Janne Kristiansen said as she presented the agency’s annual threat assessment report. “In recent years, we have seen that these are people... [more]
Hardline Islamist Abu Qatada cannot be deported to Jordan because it would be a “flagrant denial of justice”, European judges have ruled. The firebrand preacher won his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against the British government’s bid to deport him with assurances from Jordan he would not be tortured. The ECHR ruled sending Qatada, who is also known as Omar Othman, back to face terror charges could... [more]
Rescuers searching for those still missing from the cruise liner that capsized after crashing into rocks in Italy have begun using explosives to blast holes in the vessel. It comes as Italian emergency services deny reports in La Stampa newspaper that a seventh body has been found on the Costa Concordia. The increased death toll was reported in the Italian media after “black box” recordings showed the ship’s captain ignored... [more]
A Russian government commission inquiring into why the Phobos-Grunt Mars probe crashed this week is to test whether it was affected after launch by U.S. radars on its second orbit around the Earth, the commission said on Tuesday. The investigators said that they would stage an experiment where a model Phobos will be subjected to radiation similar to that from U.S. radars. “The results of the experiment will allow us to prove or dismiss... [more]
December, the export of goods amounted to NOK 81.2 billion, while the imports came to about NOK 40 billion. The trade surplus for the month was thus NOK 41.2 billion. Neither the exports nor the trade surplus have been this large since 2008, Statistics Norway reports. However, if oil and gas exports were excluded, the trade balance for 2011 would have been NOK 132 billion in the negative. The trade surplus for December was 10.8 per cent... [more]
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is concerned that higher costs and a shortage of drilling platforms will delay development and exploration of new resources on the Norwegian Shelf. Oil companies are expected to present between 15 and 20 plans for development of oil and gas finds over the next two years. The growth in investments is expected to be 40 percent higher in 2012 than in 2010. Up until now, Bente Nyland, Oil Director,... [more]
France is to issue long-term bonds on Thursday in the first test of its market credibility in the wake of Standard & Poor’s decision to strip the country of its cherished triple-A rating. The sale, an attempt to raise between €7.5 billion and €9.5 billion (between $9.5 billion and $12 billion), will be watched keenly to see whether France will pay higher yields or whether the markets will shrug off the downgrade as they did... [more]
The time is not right for Sweden to recognize the Palestinian state or make any promises to upgrade the country’s status in the UN, said foreign minister Carl Bildt on Monday after the Centre Party recently made a u-turn on the issue. “Of course we would like to, but the main aim right now is to stimulate the two parties to a dialogue. That’s what we are supporting,” Bildt said at a press conference with his Finnish colleague Erkki... [more]
Former world number one Mats Wilander was taken to hospital on the eve of the Australian Open in Melbourne after falling and lacerating a kidney, his company said on Tuesday. In a Facebook posting Wilander on Wheels, which runs tennis clinics, said it wanted to give an update on his condition because of rumours swirling about the Swede, a commentator for Eurosport. “Late on Saturday evening Mats sustained a fall in his apartment... [more]
Swedish police have launched a murder investigation after a 38-year-old Norwegian woman and her baby daughter were found dead on Monday in an apartment in Arboga in central Sweden. Swedish police could not confirm the cause of the deaths but have classified the case as a suspected double murder. An emergency call was placed at 11am on Monday morning to say that two people had been found dead. Police would not say who made the call. An ambulance... [more]
